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Who the kids know

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Who kids know in school seems to effect what kids think about people different from them.

Melanie Killen of the University of Maryland examined outlooks of white six- and nine-year-olds in all-white schools and diverse schools. The kids described what was happening in a story about a play situation in which, for example, one child might have pushed another.

Children in all-white schools expected bad behavior less often of the white character than the black character.

"We think that when children have friends or interact with kids from different ethnic backgrounds, it gives them their own experience to challenge the stereotypes that they get in the culture." (nine seconds)

Killen says it’s not just school diversity that makes the difference – it’s knowing someone different.

Her study in the journal Child Development was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: October 24, 2006

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